'It’s been a magical journey’ – Flanagan proud despite defeat
That’s the problem with scaling new heights. Somewhere along your trip up to the clouds, there comes a point where the air gets a little too thin, and it becomes impossible to breathe.
That was the point Pádraig Pearses reached on Saturday evening in Cavan, when they ran out of steam in the closing minutes and watched Kilmacud Crokes rattle off the last five points in succession to secure their place in the All-Ireland senior club football final on Saturday week.
For 50 minutes Pearses emptied their tanks in a contest that was incredibly physical and confrontational, running their engines on high revs in a bid to keep up with their Dublin opponents. Trailing by just a single point, 1-6 to 0-8, they were right in the game, but their exertions left them woefully bereft in those closing stages when Kilmacud, inspired by hugely significant substitutions, cut loose and finished in style.
Pat Flanagan admitted that Saturday’s defeat to the Dublin and Leinster champions was a huge disappointment, but he made no bones about the fact that when the contest got really pressurised in the closing stages, Pearses’ opponents didn’t spare the timber.
“We have to give them credit, they really stood up in the last ten minutes. We just couldn’t get level, we had maybe one or two chances to do so. I was just wondering if we got level and maybe got a point ahead what would have happened. We never got that opportunity. They are a good football team and they kept us under pressure the whole time and they never let us get any momentum going,” he said.
“The players they brought off the bench were very good, they played with great speed, and they deserved their win.
“That goal put us on the back foot, we weren’t able to chase it down. I’m not sure when we look back, will we see that we were at our best today to be honest? Whether that was up to their quality or whether we just didn’t perform to the best of our ability, who knows. It’s difficult to analyse it straight away after losing,” he continued.
“We are not used to losing in the last while. They put us under pressure. We went back too deep a lot of the time and drew them on to us. That caused a lot of problems for us, because when we got the ball, we weren’t able to transition quickly enough to the full forward line. We got a number of attacks up there but they were getting a lot of players back because of the distance we had to travel up the field."
And so ends what was an incredible journey for a group that broke new ground, winning their first Connacht title just over two years after lifting the Fahey Cup for the first time.
“It’s been a magical journey especially for the last four years and even the last few months,” Flanagan said. “It’s been a marvellous journey. Obviously, we are extremely, bitterly disappointed after today’s game.
“We’re shattered, every one of those boys is shattered. They felt they had the opportunity, they felt they had the right to be here. To come from a situation of no championships to being within a few minutes of an All-Ireland final appearance is a testament to how far they’ve come. If people looked back to 2019 and said to us that you could have two Roscommon titles and a Connacht title they’d have taken it, but that doesn’t take from the disappointment we’re feeling now.”
Unsurprisingly, the Offaly man declined to give any indication as to his thoughts on whether or not he planned to stick around for a fifth year in Woodmount, but whether he or someone else is at the helm, he’s adamant that Pearses now have the chance to build on their success and take control of the domestic football scene the same way that St Brigid’s and Clann na nGael have done in recent generations.
“They’re at a crossroads, it’ll be determined by what they do over the next couple of years. If they keep going, keep developing and keep working as hard as they have done, they’ll be a top force in Roscommon for the next five or ten years. But it’ll be all down to the mentality of the players and what they learn from this defeat,” said Flanagan.
“We lost our first Connacht final but came back and won the next one. Are we capable of coming back and doing the same in this competition next year, I honestly believe they can,” he added.
- Kevin Egan